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Monday, December 21, 2015

Groom's Cakes

Today
I will delve a little deeper into the tradition of a groom’s cake. In last
Friday’s Fire Star Press (an imprint of Prairie Rose Publications) post I
touched on my personal adventures—or more accurately, misadventures—with my own
family’s tradition of providing a fruitcake groom’s cake at family wedding
receptions. If you missed the post, "Nutty About Fruitcake," you can find it by clicking HERE.

sugarloaf courtesy Petr
Adam Dohnálek

The
first thing to keep in mind is that it hasn’t been that long that cakes as we
know them today have even been a possibility. It wasn’t until finely milled
flour and baking soda were introduced in the
eighteenth century that cake as we know it, light and fluffy, came
into existence.

It
was not until the late eighteenth century that sugar prices were such that
processed sugar became available to the general populous of Europe. Even then,
sugar was not granulated as we know it today, but in the form of a sugarloaf
and consumers required sugar nips, a pliers-like tool, to break off pieces. Prior
to that, except for the well-to-do, use of sweeteners like honey and fruit in
food were a rare treat. The earliest known use of frosting on a cake dates to about
1750.

The
earliest known tradition of a groom’s “cake” goes back to Roman times. A loaf
of barley bread was baked for the groom to eat part of before he broke the rest
of the loaf over the bride’s head to
bring good fortune to the couple.

Courtesy sharonlathanauthor.com

Croquembouche- still used in France

In
medieval England, the cake described in historic accounts was not a cake in the
conventional sense. They were described as flour-based sweet foods as opposed
to the description of breads that were just flour-based foods without
sweetening. In MedievalEngland, cakes
or
sweet rolls were stacked as high as possible between the bride and groom who were to then kiss each other without knocking the stack over. A successful kiss meant they were guaranteed a
prosperous life together.

In
the early 19th century, a popular dish being served was something known as
bride’s pie. First appearing in the mid-17th century, the pie was filled with
sweet breads, mince meat or, or by some accounts, just a simple mutton pie. The
main ingredient was a glass ring. An old adage claims that the lady who finds
the ring will be the next to wed. Though bride’s pies were not a fixture at
weddings, there were accounts of these pies being the main centerpiece at less
affluent ceremonies.

In
the late 19th century, the wedding cake became popular, ousting the bride’s pie
from popular culture. The cakes were originally given the title “bride cakes”
to emphasize that the focal point of the wedding was the bride. The early cakes
were simple single-tiered cakes, usually a plum cake, although other types of
cake were acceptable.

As
white flour and white sugar became more widely available, Europeans came up
with the tradition of a white bride’s cake for the wedding, the white being a
symbol of purity.

The
more modern tradition of the groom's cake began in Britain. The groom's cake
was

Courtesy Eastlake
Victorian

usually dark and solid and much smaller than the wedding cake, often richer
than the bride's cake. It was traditionally made with fruit and liquor to
preserve it, since stronger flavors such as chocolate, fruitcake, and alcohol
were considered more appropriate to "the stronger sex."

Groom's
cakes during the Victorian era were heavy, dense fruitcakes. That definitely
would describe my grandmother’s fruitcake recipe. A part of the groom’s cake
was to be saved to be eaten at the christening of their first child, which, in
the days before freezers, explains why my otherwise teetotaler grandmother
soaked the cheese cloths with which she swathed her fruitcakes with rum.

A
groom’s cake could also be sliced and wrapped ahead of time for guests to take
home or to be sent to others who could not attend so they could also celebrate
the couple’s good fortune. Single bridesmaids often put a piece of groom’s cake
under their pillows in order to dream of their future marriage partners.

The
tradition of a groom’s cake has died out in England where it originated and in
most of the United States except in the South. However, the nature of the groom’s
cake has changed. It is often not a fruitcake, but may be either a white or
chocolate cake and decorated to reflect the interests of the groom.

My
family is not from the South. In 1857, my grandmother’s mother traveled from
England along the Mormon Trail, which was roughly the same as the Oregon and
California trail, in a covered wagon when my great-grandmother was a young
girl, not much older than this picture of my grandmother when she was about
twelve. My great-grandfather was a young boy born in England when his family
traveled that same trail in 1855.

Whether
my great-great grandmother brought the tradition of groom’s cake made of
fruitcake with her, or whether either my great-grandmother or grandmother
picked up on its popularity once the tradition came into vogue in Great
Britain, the land of my great-grandparents’ nativity, I don’t know. All I know
is that I now possess my grandmother’s secret family recipe for fruitcake, I
have had a groom’s cake made from her recipe at both of my weddings, and,
although largely ignored by them, I managed to wrangle a groom’s cake from her
recipe in most of my children’s wedding receptions. Whether or not in my family
the tradition of a groom’s cake made from grandmother’s recipe will die with me
remains to be seen. But, for those who enjoy the wedding traditions of an
earlier time, I hope you have enjoyed learning more about the history of groom’s
cakes.

3 comments:

Very interesting, Zina! I always wondered about where the tradition of the groom's cake came from. And I ALWAYS hoped it would be chocolate! LOL Love learning about stuff like this. Thanks for a very informative and interesting post.MERRY CHRISTMAS!Cheryl

Times have certainly changed. I doubt I would be able to cook a thing back in that era. Imagine not having sifted flour or sugar on hand readily. I really didn't know about groom's cakes until my children were marrying. I guess I didn't attend many weddings in my youth. Very enlightening post. And I love fruit cake.

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